Many medical deficiencies and diseases result from the inability of cells to produce normal biologically active moieties. Many of these deficiencies can be remedied by implanting the needed biologically active moieties or pharmacological agents into the individual having the deficiency. A well known disease that can be remedied by implanting biological material or a pharmacological agent is Type I diabetes mellitus, wherein the production of insulin by pancreatic Langerhans islet cells is substantially deficient, impaired, or nonexistent.
For example, encapsulating human islet cells or tissues within a biologically compatible device followed by implanting the device into a host individual has been proposed as a means for providing insulin to an individual with Type I diabetes. However, an individual's immune response frequently attacks foreign biological material such as cells, tissues, and organs. Such a response severely limits the effectiveness of methods that involve implanting foreign biological material.
Porcine pancreatic islet cells can produce insulin, and their supply is much greater than that of human pancreatic islet cells. Therefore, transplanting porcine islet cells, if effectively immunoisolated from the normal immunological response of a human, would be of great benefit to a vast number of individuals with Type I diabetes.
Amphiphilic co-networks can serve as a means to encapsulate and thereby immunoisolate implantable biologically active moieties. Generally, amphiphilic co-networks comprise hydrophilic and hydrophobic polymers that can swell in both polar and non-polar solvents.
Additionally, amphiphilic networks and/or co-networks can be used to produce polymer films that swell in both polar and non-polar solvents. Accordingly, films made from amphiphilic polymer networks and/or co-networks have been found to be desirable in the production of contact lenses.
One problem associated with the synthesis of amphiphilic co-networks is how to overcome the thermodynamic incompatibility of the hydrophilic and hydrophobic constituents that will make up the amphiphilic co-network, and to unite two incompatible pre-polymers and/or polymers into a bi-continuous/bi-percolating construct. Typically, crosslinking of such systems is carried out in homogeneous solution in a common solvent at low pre-polymer and/or polymer concentrations, followed by the addition of a suitable crosslinker (i.e., by dissolving the two pre-polymers which are generally incompatible in their dry states). While this method yields uniform co-networks, the removal of the common solvent is accompanied by massive shrinkage, which renders the method technically impractical. Also, the dimensional stability of such co-networks is poor, the surface properties are hard to control, and the co-networks (or products formed therefrom) are fragile and difficult to manipulate.
Thus, there is a need in the art for reliable synthesis routes for amphiphilic co-networks. Specifically, desirable synthesis routes would include those that permit the control of one or more chemical and/or physical properties of amphiphilic co-networks. Also of interest are synthesis routes for amphiphilic co-networks that produce amphiphilic co-networks that are suitable for use in medical (e.g., cell encapsulation), biological and ophthalmic uses.